Photo by Beret Sauer
What constitutes a holiday tradition?
Two gal pals and I started baking sugar cookies together one December with our girls when they were just two. One was still in a high chair. Sprinkles from that year still occasionally work their way out of my floorboards, like some antediluvian matter.
Our daughters are 14 now -- one in Minneapolis, one in the St. Paul, the third in Stillwater -- and we haven't missed a year. The hosting duo now makes the dough and bakes the cookies one day ahead -- six batches of Maida Heatter's best, with two tablespoons of fresh lemon rind per batch and yes, a full stick of butter. The rest of the crew piles in on a Saturday to frost, decorate and ply the floor with icing. Five hours later, we've finished about 250 cookies and made a spectacularly breathtaking mess.
It's a tossup which stuns me more: that busy working moms have managed to keep it going this long without missing a year. Or, that the three of us look so forward to something we started "for them." That's gotten to be a tradition, too, I guess.
How much bonding is going on over the batter bowl at your house this season?
